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Once I first moved to Colorado, I realized the onerous manner about the necessity to winterize my irrigation system. By no means having had a system, I had no concept the way it labored or of the upkeep it required. A number of hundred {dollars} later, after the backflow preventer had frozen, I realized my lesson.
Easy methods to shut off and drain your irrigation system
In case you’ve lived within the Mountain West for any time frame, you realize we’re infamous for an early freeze warning or snowstorm that’s rapidly adopted by days or perhaps weeks of hotter climate, extending the rising season for the numerous vegetation that survived the short burst of winter. On this case, you will need to briefly defend the system. Happily, that is simple to do.
1) Set the irrigation controller to “off.”
2) Flip off the water on the mainline. That is normally discovered indoors within the basement.
3) Open all valves on the backflow preventer to let it drain. Do that by turning any screw or valve that’s perpendicular to the pipe in order that it’s parallel to the pipe. Water ought to drain out.
4) Close to the mainline shutoff there needs to be a line drain. Open that utilizing a bucket to gather the water if wanted.
5) Cowl your backflow preventer with an insulating cowl, a blanket, or one thing related.
6) Whereas they aren’t linked to your irrigation system, make certain any hoses hooked up to spigots on your house are disconnected in order that they don’t freeze.
Taking these steps ought to get your irrigation system via a short lived freeze. As soon as the chilly snap has handed, you possibly can reverse the method and preserve watering as wanted.
Think about calling knowledgeable to blow out your pipes
The place you reside within the Mountain West will decide when you must completely winterize your system, which entails following the above steps once more. The time to winterize needs to be proper earlier than you begin to expertise freezing temperatures at night time. Nonetheless, if you happen to missed that, winterizing as quickly as doable is best than not winterizing in any respect. Most irrigation programs within the Mountain West are blown out to get rid of as a lot water within the strains and sprinkler heads as doable. I extremely advocate hiring knowledgeable to do that, as house compressors don’t generate sufficient air strain to utterly empty the system and even small quantities of water could cause severe injury. Take it from me (as I realized a few years in the past) that the annual expense of this upkeep is effectively price it.
For extra on irrigation, take a look at:
And for extra Mountain West regional stories, click on right here.
—Michelle Provaznik is government director of the Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the CEO of the American Public Gardens Affiliation.
Pictures: Michelle Provaznik
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